Conventional rotary mowers for heavy duty grass and brush cutting have three cutters, a centre cutter and two wing cutters that can be raised from a working position to a transport position. Attempts have been made to use five cutters in a mower, but these have proven unsatisfactory. The large, delta shape provided by five cutters is impractically long. Additionally, this format requires that the transport wheels on the centre section are inside the wings, so that the track is quite narrow and transport stability is not exceptionally good.
Another difficulty with the prior art machines is the drive configuration. A stopping rotation of the centre cutter causes immediate stoppage in rotation of all five cutters, thus imposing very high shock loadings on the drive line.
The present invention is concerned with a novel five cutter mower of this type.